LEWISTON – James Purcell’s response to charges that he has been running an illegal tattoo shop is simple: He never did that. His explanation to claims that his artwork made a Lewiston woman sick is concise: It wasn’t him, it was somebody else.

In the living room of his 26 Knox St. apartment Wednesday, the 30-year-old denied all charges that he tattooed a woman who was later hospitalized with an infection.

“There was no tattooing done in here,” he said. “I haven’t tattooed anyone since I did myself back in February.”

Covered with more than a half dozen tattoos of his own, Purcell was charged earlier this month with operating an unlicensed tattoo parlor in the apartment he shares with his wife and young children.

Police began investigating the case after 21-year-old Destiney Lemieux reported she contracted a staph infection from the last of five tattoos she got from Purcell. It was an angel on a cloud tattooed on her ankle that developed lesions and caused her ankle to swell.

Purcell denied that he had done that tattoo or any others for Lemieux. He said he recommended another man when Lemieux asked him to do tattoo work in June. The criminal charges that followed were the result of either mistaken identity or false accusations, he said.

“She came to me, asking if I knew any tattooists,” Purcell said. “I wouldn’t tattoo her so she went down the street. I think she’s blaming me because I’m the one who set her up with this guy.”

The tattooist Purcell named is a man who lives in another Knox Street building. That man has not been charged by police and was not mentioned by Lemieux.

After she was hospitalized, Lemieux gave police a four-page statement outlining what she described as unsanitary practices at Purcell’s apartment.

Lemieux said he created tattoos for several people without washing blood from his hands or needles. She said he used the same dirty shirt to swab blood and ink from the skin of clients. And she said he handled his ferrets and resumed tattoo work without cleaning up.

The ferrets were in a cage at Purcell’s apartment Wednesday night. Several bicycle frames and parts were strewn across the living room. He repairs and rebuilds bicycles and that is all the painting he does at his apartment these days, Purcell said.

“I do all my own custom work. The police took like $200 worth of drawing inks,” he said.

Purcell was referring to the search at his apartment in which investigators confiscated ink and other equipment. Police said they also seized an appointment book in which Purcell had written down the names of people he had tattooed or was planning to tattoo.

Purcell denied it. The names written in the book with the word “tattoo” next to them were of people he planned to refer to the other man on Knox Street, he said.

He admitted Lemieux had given him a computer, a carton of cigarettes and other items last month. But he insisted those items were given to him as thanks for recommending another tattooist. Purcell said he has not done any tattoos at all since moving here from Portland in May.

“My husband won’t even tattoo me,” said Purcell’s wife, Louberta, cradling her two-month-old son. “He’s a family man. He doesn’t do anything in here except for the bike work.”

In Lewiston, it is illegal to do any tattoo work without a proper license.

Police say they have witnesses and other evidence to support their charge against Purcell.

Lemieux said she has friends who can back up her claims that Purcell is the man who put tattoos on her neck, chest, arm and leg. She said she reported her health complications in hopes of preventing anyone else from suffering similar problems.

Purcell, who goes by the nickname “Tattoo,” says he plans to be in court Sept. 10. That’s when police will present their case against him.

“I’m fighting this charge,” Purcell said. “I’ll fight it tooth and nail.”

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